Standing Man… Staande Man…

While police still was filling the streets of Istanbul with teargas after clearing Gezi Park and Taksim, something strange was happening. A man arrived at Taksim Square, faced the big portrait of Atatürk hanging from the Cultural Centre AKM and stood there… without moving, with no expression on his face… Some puzzled people, presumably civil police, went through his bag, had him empty his pockets but for the rest he just stood there without any reaction. By and by more and more people came to stand with him, none reacting to questions from the press trying to find out what this was all about, to anything around them. The police, not knowing what to make of it started arresting people around him. Only then did he stop his action after more or less six hours. He explained then that he was prepared to be arrested himself but did not want to harm others by his example. Nevertheless, all over Istanbul Standing Men and Women started appearing in silent resistance and promptly got picked up by the police… They will probably be accused of — standing…